D&D 5E (2024) Heroes of the Borderlands

[Paul Farquhar]

If the adventure is so obsolete and "bottom of the barrel" compared to WotC's current crop, why is it being resurrected?

Because it's a good example of "how to put together a very basic D&D adventure" for 12 year old newbies. Which is what it was written for in the first place.

They couldn't resist the urge to clean up some of the most glaring illogicalities though.

They even give the humanoids motivation! So there is a reason they are sitting in those caves waiting to be murdered.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What’s scary is this is still probably one of the best d&d adventures and the formula is very simple and yet none of the new writers can come close to it. 46 years!!!

Lost Mine of Phandalin runs effortless rings about it.

If Keep on the Borderlands came out for the first time today, it would not be greeted warmly without the golden glow of nostalgia. ("Why are all the monsters living next door to each other in cave apartments? Why don't these NPCs have names? Why isn't the castellan doing more to tame the wilderness?")

It is a good framework to do something more interesting with, but the original very much shows off that this was a very early attempt to do this sort of adventure. (And for extra outrage points, all of the above is also true of Isle of Dread, which is "great" because it's basically the first wilderness adventure.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Or you could just write it yourself. You don’t need a professional writer if you like your D&D bare bones simplistic.

There's also a ton of OSR adventures using the same structure, if someone wants to buy one off the shelf. The Merry Mushmen publish several adventures that feature a home base, faffing about in the wilderness and then a big dungeon site.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There's also a ton of OSR adventures using the same structure, if someone wants to buy one off the shelf. The Merry Mushmen publish several adventures that feature a home base, faffing about in the wilderness and then a big dungeon site.

Yeah, but why would you spend good money on something so simplistic? If I’m going to buy an adventure, it needs to be something I couldn’t have come up with myself!

This starter set, sure, you are paying for the accessories.

 

[wicked cool]

I have no idea, wondered about that too when they announced it… to me it represents everything modern D&D is not, so it does not even work as a good introduction (assuming they did not make drastic changes to it).

I can see two reasons, they finally want to fix this adventure (unlikely), they hope rose-colored nostalgia gets people to buy it for their kids / grandkids

Disagree but i understand

For me I love the simplicity of it
Keep-base
Explore forest and caves return to base

It works better than phandelver and other new starter set adventures . Phandelver although great is kind of a mess and not super easy to run as a new dm

 

[Zaukrie]

Disagree but i understand

For me I love the simplicity of it
Keep-base
Explore forest and caves return to base

It works better than phandelver and other new starter set adventures . Phandelver although great is kind of a mess and not super easy to run as a new dm

Interesting take.

 

[Parmandur]

I can see two reasons, they finally want to fix this adventure (unlikely), they hope rose-colored nostalgia gets people to buy it for their kids / grandkids

100% both: this Set has the same product lead as Quests from the Infinite Staircase, which went ehond fixing up those classic modules, at least Expedition to the Barriwr Peaks was fundamentally new Adve gjre written from scratch with a BBEG, rationale and plot.

I think k what we will see here is a fundamentally rewritten Adventure plugging into noatalgia.

 

[wicked cool]

Arguments for

Keep
Most part plug and play- I can add in motivations and change some monster's as I certainly don’t want my vampires next door to my dragons etc. Drive thru people come up with concepts that I wouldn’t have thought of and some maps have traps etc I wouldn’t have thought of. If my adventures were better than I wouldn’t even comment on this topic but I’m old and I enjoy the borderlands saltmarsh and TOE .

The problem (my opinion) with modern books unl ss you invest time (don’t have as much as I did ) is the books are massive and sometimes not organized properly plus due to my experiences the party never does what you plan

Take phandelver
You have multiple good and bad npcs that have motivations. 9/10 these scenes don’t play out like the book says. The pcs might not find the Druid or do the optional quests and they don’t always have a conversation with the bad person and some of it is just needless fluff
Icewind dale has several locations as it’s a group of villages. I’m sorry but it’s a lot of work to preplan or say load those maps into a online server
Dugeon dudes have a very good adventure that is in d&d beyond but say unlike the keep or say ballers gate the actual city map is left up tour imagination (there’s key locations) but if I’m really roleplaying I’m having to map out that city beforehand (I try not to fly by the seat of my pants on game night) that’s a time commitment and I subscribe to the lazy dm model

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yeah, but why would you spend good money on something so simplistic? If I’m going to buy an adventure, it needs to be something I couldn’t have come up with myself!

This starter set, sure, you are paying for the accessories.

Maps are useful. New statblocks too. I mostly just tear adventures apart to use the bits for my homebrew anyway.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, but why would you spend good money on something so simplistic? If I’m going to buy an adventure, it needs to be something I couldn’t have come up with myself!

The Merry Mushmen modules are apparently excellent. If you do turn out consistently excellent home adventures, good on ya. But I think the online RPG community includes all skill levels when it comes adventure design. Some folks, whether due to skill or time constraints, sometimes just want to grab something good off the shelf and run it.